Culture COMMENTARY


Face-to-Face Interaction Crucial for Society


We lose something when we only relate to people via screens, writes psychoanalyst Stuart Scheiderman.


T


his is not going to be a sermon. Nevertheless, I am happy to share a text from the Bible, specifically from


1 Corinthians: “For now we see through a glass


darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.” Of course, I am not going to regale


you with biblical exegesis. I am going to misread, or perhaps even misapply, the text. I am going to follow the thought of


one Jessica Grose from The New York Times, to the effect that we lose some- thing when we only relate to other people via screens. We lose something when we do not


relate face to face, person to person. Naturally, the biblical text does not


refer to the internet or to screen time. If it did, that would grant to the apostle far more prescience than is reasonable. Grose presents her thinking: “The pro-tech argument I often hear in my reporting on education and


mental health therapy is that it’s ‘bet- ter than nothing’ for people who would otherwise not have access to services. “Which is to say: Emotional sup-


port through a chatbot is better than no support at all, and AI tutoring is better than no tutoring at all.


We are up with efficiency and with economy, and down with low-stakes human interaction.


“Too many people accept these arguments as true without consider- ing the social cost of cutting out every- day human interaction and the finan- cial and environmental cost of the technology itself. AI chatbots don’t come for free.” In part, the issue involves the ques-


tion of whether it is better to see a real doctor or to engage in online care. Then it also asks whether it is better to see a doctor or to be diagnosed by AI. But Grose takes it a


step further, correctly so. “Overall trust in insti-


tutions is at historic lows, according to Gallup, and the picture is one of declining faith over the past 40 years. “That’s roughly the


same period in which technology has accel- erated and replaced or bowdlerized a lot of low- stakes human interac-


44 NEWSMAX | FEBRUARY 2025


tion, otherwise known as ‘weak ties,’ like the ones you have with a grocery store clerk you see regularly or even the primary care physician you see once a year.” True enough, we have lost the knack


of having weak social ties. We have lost the ability to engage in small talk. We are up with efficiency and with economy, and down with low-stakes human interaction. I will not opine here about our


shredded social fabric or even our wob- bly institutions. But I would add this: When you have occasional deal-


ings with the grocer or the dry cleaner, you are affirming your membership in a community. You are engaging in an economic exchange, a transaction, where you both follow certain rules. This is what makes the nation


cohere. It is what makes people belong to a community. You cannot gain the same advantage by interacting with a screen. Why does it matter that it occurs


face to face? Primarily because you are identified by your face. People recog- nize you and know who you are when they can see your face. Too often members of the psycho professions encourage people to expose personal secrets, as though sharing intimacies produces a connection. In truth, this form of incontinence


only tells people that you cannot be trusted with secrets. Why confide in someone who shares confidences? As I have often remarked, you are


not how you feel. You are how you look to other people. And how you engage in social transactions with other people.


Psychoanalyst Stuart Schneiderman is a life coach and author of numerous books. His columns appear on Substack.


STELLALEVI©ISTOCK


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